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True to his word his cock began to throb between her lips and he groaned again, his fingers digging into the cheeks of her bottom. She tightened her grip on his shaft, increasing the speed and intensity of her strokes, her mouth moving in sync with her hand. Less than a minute later his body tensed under her and he bucked up into her mouth as a stream of his cum was released, pounding against the back of her throat. After lapping up every last drop of him she slid from his body, panting hard.

“Come here darlin’.”

She looked up and met his gaze; while the desire was still in his eyes, it had simmered substantially. She crawled up the length of his body and was pulled into him, snuggling to his side, laying her head on his shoulder.

Connor reached out and raked his hands through her dark locks, watching as the strands slowly fell from his fingertips. Not knowing what to say, she remained silent enjoying the slight tug of the strands as his fingers worked their way through her hair while tracing the lines of muscle of his chest and abdominals. It was nice, comfortable and relaxed. Nothing like her encounters in the past.

“We need to get some sleep, honey. I have a big day planned for you.”

She groaned inwardly as she crinkled up her nose. “Oh no. Not shit removal again.”

“Nope. Not tomorrow. Tomorrow I have a whole new fun set of chores in mind.”

She didn’t bother asking what those may be, she didn’t want to ruin her night.

Chapter 10

Finished with rubbing the excess water from his hair, Connor wrapped the green towel around his damp, naked body and entered Samantha’s room. She hadn’t moved a muscle from how he’d left her ten minutes earlier, curled into a little ball facing him. The blanket had slid down her body and was now bunched at her waist, exposing her bare breasts to his view.

Shit, why did I let this happen?
Just as he was thinking the words his cock jerked alive and began its ascent, reminding him of why. But it was more than just a sexual attraction, each day he was with her he saw a little bit more of who she really was beneath the act she put on and he really liked it. She just needed to feel like someone genuinely cared for her, it was a damned shame she’d spent most of her life thinking she had no one who cared for her.

Crouching down he gave her shoulder a little shake. “Darlin’ time to get up.”

She grumbled something he couldn’t quite make out, batted his hand away and rolled to her other side, away from him.

“Sam.” He gave her shoulder a harder shake, raising the volume of his voice. He was tempted to allow her to sleep in, but that wasn’t the deal. If he got soft on her nothing would ever change. Whatever it was that was developing between them couldn’t interfere with the main reason she was sent to him.

“Samantha!” He pulled the blanket from her body and gave her ass a little slap, not enough to hurt, but certainly hard enough to get her attention. “Wake up.”

She yelped, her eyes springing open in alarm as she rolled over to her back, giving him a full frontal view of her stunning body. His erection became rock solid, tenting the towel.

Well, fuck
.

“What was that for!” She scowled at him, grabbed the pillow next to her head and chucked it at him. The pillow slammed against his chest and fell down his body, taking the towel with it.

Her eyes widened and a smile crept onto her lips as her gaze lowered to his massive erection. “Oh.” She scrambled to her knees and crawled over to the edge of the bed, allowing the blanket to fall completely from her body. She lifted her gaze to meet his. “Are we going to pick up where we left off last night?”

Groaning inwardly, he reapplied the towel around his hips, grabbed the pillow and playfully smacked her in the face with it before tossing it onto the bed beside her. “No. Get up. We have work to do.” The look of disappointment that settled into her eyes tested his resolve.

“Come on…” she laid back on the bed and rubbed the spot beside her. “Just an hour. There’s no sense wasting that beautiful erection.”

“It’s about discipline, Princess. Now get up and come downstairs. I’m going down to make breakfast. If I have to come after you a second time, I’ll be carrying a bucket of ice water with me.”

“You wouldn’t!” she challenged, her eyes narrowing at him, but a hint of a smile emerging on her lips.

“If I come back up here then you’ll find out. Just keep in mind I’m a man of my word sweetie.” He was aching to at least bend down and kiss her, but knew if he did that would be the end of him and she’d have no problem keeping him right there for much of the morning indulging in her.

“Fine.”

“Besides, you have a lot to learn today. We’re going to milk some cows – by hand. And if you’re a really good girl I might even show you how to lasso a fence post.” He grinned and gave her a wink, which was replied by her rolling her eyes at him.

“Don’t you have machines for milking cows?”

“I do. And now I also have you.”

“Ugh.”

Turing on his heel, he quickly went to his room, got dressed in the usual worn-out jeans and t-shirt and made his way downstairs to start breakfast. By the time he made it to the kitchen he could hear her above him moving around in the bedroom and then turning on the shower.

~*~*~*~*~

Getting up early, another thing it was going to take some time getting used to. Although it was a hell of a lot easier to get up early when the previous night didn’t include partying and getting wasted well into the night and sometimes even the morning. Once showered she quickly dressed and made her way downstairs. As she descended the stairs the smell of bacon and eggs drifted to her nose, making her quicken her pace.

“Need help?” she asked, entering the kitchen.

“’Bout time you got down here.” Connor paused from plating the food to welcome her with a smile, as he motioned with the spatula to sit down at the small four-person kitchen table.

“Women do take a little longer to get ready for the day you know.” She took a seat and watched as he finished plating the food and brought it to her, followed by a couple of glasses of orange juice.

“Sure, sure.” He sat down across from her, grabbed a slice of bacon and popped it into his mouth.

“So are we seriously going to milk cows by hand?” She crinkled up her nose, not sure how she felt about yanking on a cow’s nipples.

“We’re not,” he confirmed.

She let out a loud sigh of relief. He’d been fucking with her. She began eating her breakfast. Normally her breakfast consisted of a smoothie featuring kale, berries and chia seeds. This was the third day in a row she’d eaten something greasy and full of calories. If this kept up she’d be gaining weight in no time, certainly something she didn’t want.

“You are.”

Huh?
She perked her head up from her breakfast to eye him. “Come again?”

“
We
won’t be milking cows by hand, you’ll be. I already know how, but it’s something you should learn.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, ’cause there’s so many cows in Manhattan begging to be milked. They just roam the streets hanging out at the subway stations mooing as you walk by.”

Their eyes locked and she knew they were both thinking the same thing and coming to the same conclusion. This was a temporary thing, she could learn all about the farm and how to do everything on it, but the end result would be the same – she was going back to New York and he was staying there. If someone had told her four days ago she’d be sad at the idea of leaving she’d have laughed at them; now it was going back that didn’t seem all too appealing.

He took a deep breath in and slowly released it, forcing a smile onto his lips. “Hurry and finish up. We’ve got a long day ahead.”

~*~*~*~*~

The faces Samantha was making with each squeeze of the cow’s teats was one of the most comical things Connor had ever seen, although not quite as comical as her expression when he made her stroke the cow’s udder before she began. But he had to give her credit, she’d done it with a minimum of bitching.

“I think you’re about done darlin’.”

“Well, geez,
Darlin’
it’s only been twenty minutes. I was hoping to spend at least an hour feeling the cows up.” Despite her sarcasm, there was a smile on her lips and a mischievous gleam shone in her eyes. As she gave the teats one final squeeze, she directed the milk flow in his direction, spraying the front of his jeans, and released the cow.

“What the fuck!” The milk left a damp spot right at his crotch. “I look like I pissed myself.”

“Oooops. Sorry.”

He caught her gaze and scowled at her, which only sent her into a fit of laughter. “You’re wasting good milk, woman!” She didn’t seem concerned.

With her laughter dying out she massaged her hands, stroking the knuckles. “God, that hurts.”

“Imagine if you had to do that every day, twice a day for every cow.”

She groaned as she stood. “No, can’t say that I can imagine it. I’d have big old callused man hands if I did. So what now?”

“Well, you have your choice. I can show you how to rope a fence post, or shoot a rifle.”

“Considering my hands are so sore I don’t think I could pull the trigger I think roping a fence post would be more my speed.”

“All right, come on over to the stable.”

~*~*~*~*~

Samantha followed Connor across the field to the stable, staying a step behind him so she could admire his firm ass and broad shoulders under the tight cotton shirt. After he fell to sleep she’d spent close to an hour thinking as her fingers traced the beautiful masses of muscle, considering what she was going to do and if maybe he’d been right all along. She eventually fell to sleep deciding she’d let things work out naturally. Just because she wanted to stay didn’t mean he’d want her to.

“Here take this.” Connor grabbed two lassos from the hooks inside the stable and handed her one, keeping one for himself.

She accepted the lasso and began examining the stiff rope. “So you just chuck it?” His laughter had her glancing up, meeting his gaze. The dour mood he’d been in while having breakfast was gone and there was a twinkle of amusement in his grey eyes.

“Not exactly. Follow me.” He led her over to a corner point of the horses’ fenced-in area. He indeed intended on her practicing on a post.

“Just think of all the life skills you’re learning here.”

“Oh, I’ll be a regular old Manhattan cowgal.”

“Well, everyone needs a skill to fall back on. Just wait until we get to you roping a live animal while on the horses.”

Her mouth dropped. She could barely ride the horse and he expected her to rope some animal while on one! He chuckled seeing her expression and adjusted the loop to his liking. “That’s a long ways down the road though. Now, the main thing to remember is that you’re not throwing the rope so much as releasing it when you feel it has hit its release point.”

She gave him a dubious look. “How do I know when that is?”

“You’ll feel it pull. Just watch.”

She took a step back and watched as he began to swing it over his head. The large loop swirled and circled over his head. After several swings, he released and the lasso effortlessly circled the post.

“See, easy enough.” He nodded toward the lasso in her hand. “Try it.”

With a shrug, Samantha began making the revolutions over her head, but a smile immediately touched her lips as the lasso gained speed, making soft swishing sounds above her, and began to pull in her hands. “Now what?”

“Do you feel the tug?”

She nodded.

“Then let go, but let your hand go with it.”

She turned to face him. “Now?”

“Now!”

She released the lasso while still facing the direction of Connor. The rope went sailing through the air and effortlessly slipped over Connor’s head and tightened around his shoulders, knocking his hat off in the process. The look of astonishment was so funny, Samantha was overtaken by a bout of laughter.

He closed his eyes and slowly released his breath, giving his head a slight shake. “I meant, facing the fence post Samantha.”

“Oops.”

Opening his eyes Connor huffed. “Thank God we chose this instead of firing rifles, otherwise I’d be dead right now.” Despite his attempt to keep a stern expression on his face a smile was emerging on his lips.

“Nice first try by the way.” Grabbing the rope, he pulled it up and over his head, passing it to her before retrieving his hat from the ground and placing it back onto his head. “Now maybe try for the post this time.”

She forced herself to rein in the laughter as she accepted the rope. “I’m really sorry Connor.”

“Try again.” As he said the words he took a step away and toward the back of her, which only caused another bout of laughter to erupt from her.

Looking over her shoulder at Connor, she arched a brow at him. “Is that really necessary?”

“Yeah darlin’, I think it is. Now rope the post this time.”

After getting the lasso ready, she allowed it to rotate over her head several times before releasing and like magic it looped the post. With a little yelp of triumph she walked over to the post and removed the rope, then spun around to face him.

“So, what do you think?” Samantha walked over to him, coming to stand less than a foot away.

“Really good. I’m impressed.”

“So… do I get a reward for doing so good?” She closed the remaining distance between them, dropped the lasso to the ground and slipped her hands up his chest to place a tentative kiss on his lips.

Please don’t turn me away. Please don’t turn me away
. The thoughts raced through her mind as if on a loop. He hadn’t been quite himself since breakfast so she was extremely unsure on how he’d react. He kissed her back, but there was restraint behind his kisses.

Connor pulled back and ran a hand through his hair, avoiding her gaze. “Look, Samantha.”

Her body tensed and she lowered her forehead to his chest, slipping her arms around his waist and clinging to him. “Don’t say it, Connor. I know what you’re going to say and please don’t say it.”